Page 10 - May_2014

Fly fishing the Hendrickson Hatch

By Whelan Thomas Joyner

MIDDLEBURY, VT. — My first calories, and won’t want to move to your
experience with the Hendrickson hatch flies. Try multiple dead drifts in fishy
in Vermont was basically an accident. stretches of water, experimenting with

A saltwater angler by upbringing, I’d so different depths and flies. It may take
far spent my first spring season in the putting your rig right on a trout’s nose to
Green Mountains casting incredulously get its attention. Double nymph rigs double
and unsuccessfully at pocket water chances, so tie on a heavy beadhead nymph
in meandering mountain tributaries, trailed at about 16 inches by a smaller wet
determined to prove to the internet fishing fly. Flashy patterns are great for the early
Vermont has long drawn anglers from around the world to fish its idyllic streams.
columns and well-meaning fly shop guys Here, Kyle Cartwright fishes the Brewster River in Jeffersonville, Vt. Above, two flies season, when fish haven’t been spooked
that real fish cannot, in fact, be found in the author uses to attract trout during the Hendrickson Hatch.
by heavy fishing pressure. Another option
the shimmering six-inch space between a is to tie a small mayfly nymph behind a Top photo by Oliver Parini
gravel streambed and the water’s surface.
big, meaty stonefly imitation like a Pat’s
It had only taken me a few outings to Rubberlegs.
get down to about two feet of leader and Once the water hits the mid-50s,
us. Here is what I’ve learned: evolutionary adaptation as I’ve ever heard
a last harried-looking Parachute Adams Hendricksons should start hatching in the Hendrickson are a type of mayfly, one
of, and gives rise to the fly’s scientific name,
pirated from my grandfather’s mudroom afternoon. Overcast days tend to be best of three groups (along with stoneflies and Ephemerella.
closet. I headed to the fly shop, squaring for catching good hatches. If bugs aren’t caddis flies) of aquatic insects important to The afternoon and evening of
my shoulders against the knowing smiles I coming off the water but you still want to
knew I’d receive.
try to force a rise, tie a small, light nymph fly fishers and their quarry, trout. Mayflies the day following their emergence, the
begin life as nymphs—crawling subaquatic males swarm over the water as females
The next afternoon was overcast behind a big dry.
larvae. As water temperatures rise toward individually join them. After mating,
with a slight drizzle. From the handful of Fly shops generally carry plenty of the mid-50s in May, these nymphs begin the females deposit their eggs and drop,
exotic new flies that had been foisted upon Hendrickson patterns, and it’s always to wriggle their way to the surface of the exhausted, to the water. This is what is
me I selected a #12 Sparkle Dun. As I rigged a good idea to check with the local shop water, a time during which they make up known in fishing terms as a spinner fall,
up I noticed bugs coming off the water. By to find out what’s working, but some
the time I’d waded out to what seemed like of my all-time favorite patterns include some 80 percent of a trout’s diet. Once a and is about the most profitable phase
nymph reaches the surface film, it begins of the mayfly’s life cycle to fish. So: eggs,
a decent spot they were hatching in droves, Sparkle Duns, which are meaty and tend to shed its exoskeleton shuck, becoming, nymph, emerger, dun, spinner, fish food.
the same light color as my new fly, and to sit nicely in the water, and plain old in fly fishing parlance, an emerger. When Got it?
then—first sporadically, then increasing to Hendrickson patterns, which tend to be the mayfly has fully emerged and broken **********
a splashing frenzy—rises! Needless to say, a little slimmer and more heavily hackled. through the water’s surface film, it must As anglers, this year we can look
what ensued was a dry-fly angler’s dream.
There are actually two varieties of
Dialing in on a hatch can be a Hendrickson dun, light and dark, so pick wait to dry its wings.
forward to higher, colder water in most
The winged dun, so named for its of our river systems well into May in the
frustrating and time-consuming endeavor, up a couple flies in each color. It’s also a dull color, flies to the riverbank for the wake of deep snowpack and heavy runoff.
but it yields much more than occasional good idea to bring some emerger patterns, night. There, it once again molts its skin, In muddy, turbulent conditions the best
great fishing. Insects are an integral part which have a synthetic ‘shuck’ instead of a becoming a sexually mature spinner. By strategy is to dead drift or swing big,
of riverine ecosystems, and learning their tail, and some spinners.
habits is one of the most rewarding ways I’ve never stumbled onto a hatch the way, these mayflies only live for about bright streamers to combat low visibility,
as easily as I did that May afternoon, 24 hours from the time of their emergence, but as water levels lower and streams start
to get acquainted with the rhythm of life because in the transition from nymph to clear up going into May, it’ll be time to
on local waters.
but every spring I look forward to seeing to dun their digestive system has been tie on nymphs.
As spring stutters its way into May, mayflies start to pop off the water as a sign exchanged for sexual organs—which is As long as the water is cold, fish
the time for Hendricksons is almost upon
of warmer weather and great fishing.
about as fatalistic and no-nonsense an
will be lethargic, trying to conserve their

10 VTSPORTS.COM
MAY 2014